DJ Screw was one of the most influential artists to come from Houston.
The artist was known as the creator of the now-famous chopped and screwed DJ technique and was a central and influential figure in the Houston hip hop community.
A new book by former Houstonian Lance Walker explores the life of the DJ, whose real name was Robert Earl Davis Jr.
The book, which is titled DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution, was released May 17.
Walker will be at Endless Horizons in Odessa at 3 p.m. today to talk about his new book and to sign copies which will be a part of his book tour.
It’ll be the first time that Walker has come out to the Permian Basin.
“That’s one of the main reasons that I’ll be coming through because this tour gives me a chance to come through parts of Texas that I haven’t been to,” Walker said in a phone interview. “I’ve always wanted to come to Odessa and visit that area of the state but never had the chance. I found out about Endless Horizons and knew that was the destination where I needed to go. It gives me an opportunity to come to Odessa and see a part of the state that I haven’t been to.”
Walker’s book is the first on the legendary DJ and is built out of more than 150 interviews with those who knew Screw best and written in an innovative narrative biography/oral history format that serves to highlight their voices in telling Screw’s story.
DJ Screw lived a short life, dying only at the age of 29 on Nov. 16, 2000 in Houston of a codeine overdose.
Walker talked about the relationship he built with people that he interviewed for this book.
“It was very good because this is their book,” Walker said. “I really wrote this book for them in so many ways for the people that were a part of his life. The goal was to have a book that was based around the oral history where if DJ Screw is looking down, he’d want to know that all of these people are in his book and they are. I got to say, people have been really happy with the results. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people that I’ve interviewed in the book. They’re so happy to see their names and their friend’s names in the book. It’s sort of the lost stories that have never been told. It has some deeper truths and facts about DJ screw’s life that even some of his friends didn’t know.”
Screw released over 350 mixtapes and was recognized as an innovator. His legacy was discovered by a wider audience about five years after his death and has influenced a wide variety of artists, most notably Houstonian rapper Travis Scott.
Scott paid homage to DJ Screw in his 2018 album “Astroworld.”
“Travis Scott is a pretty obvious one because he just had a song that’s dedicated to Screw that came out in his Astroworld album and he features Big Hawk on that record,” Walker said. “I wrote about that in the book. There’s a lot of Houston influence in there and a lot of mention of DJ Screw. … A lot of DJs have taken on his influence and done their own version of it. They’re taking those techniques that Screw put together and they’re making their own art form out of it and I think that’s the most beautiful thing about DJ Screw’s influence.”
The book is published by the University of Texas Press.
Walker, who listened to a lot of DJ Screw’s mixtapes growing up, originally came up with the idea of doing a biography over a decade ago.
“I really got the idea going in about 2008 when I was working on a couple of other Houston hip hop book projects,” Walker said. “But I’d say that I really put wheels under it around 2015 and that was when I reached out to the publisher at the University of Texas and got to talking about the idea. They liked the idea. But I had to put together a book proposal and jump through all the hoops. So I went to work on that. That took me about another four years before I had that all ready. It takes a while.”
Walker may have been originally from Galveston but he moved to Houston in 1992. Today, he lives in New York City.
During the early 90s, Walker mentions at the beginning of his book, the Geto Boys were the local heroes, breaking nationally the summer before.
Shortly thereafter, it was DJ Screw who would emerge to define the sound of the city.
Walker remembers he himself listened to DJ Screw’s tapes just like everybody else in the city.
“I was in the punk rock, heavy metal scene,” Walker said. “I was going to some hip hop shows but I would see local bands like the Odd Squad. I wasn’t aware of that scene. I could tell that something was brewing and that DJ Screw’s tapes were getting around. Really, when I first moved to Houston in the early 90s, the big group was the Geto Boys.”
Walker talked about how the Geto Boys helped pave the way for people like DJ Screw.
“The Geto Boys broke nationally right at that same time. That was really the scene when I moved to Houston. I think that was really important to Screw and Houston because people looked at them and said ‘wow, those guys come from my neighborhood.’ I really think the Geto Boys made a lot of things possible for people in Houston. Screw’s entire network and scene was built differently but I think the seed was planted from the Geto Boys and that helped out.”
In his book, Walker talks about how even though DJ Screw has been gone for two decades now, the sound of his chopped and screwed mixing technique has left an indelible mark on contemporary music.
His tapes continue to sell and get sampled by other artists and unearthed volumes of his recordings still materialize each year.
“As far as what has stood out the most in the mainstream of hip hop, when you hear music slowed down, one way or another, that music comes from him,” Walker said. “He’s got an influence around hip hop that is mainstream in general.”
As far as his influence in Houston, it goes a lot deeper.
“Screw was a personal friend of so many of the people in Houston who appeared in his tapes and learned how to freestyle on his tapes and became artists because of working with him,” Walker said. “That personal connection I think really keeps his legacy alive in Houston and beyond in a way that’s really palpable and the people who worked with him. He really meant a lot to them and inspired them and really made artists out of them where they otherwise may not have taken that path. He’s got a greater influence around hip hop in general but his Houston influence is really deep and on a personal level.”
It’s no telling what DJ Screw’s mixtapes would sound like today if the artist was still alive.
“Who knows?” Walker said. “It’s so fun to think about because DJ Screw really used technology in some ways. He didn’t have processors. He had different pieces of equipment. He didn’t use CDs in his process of mixing. He didn’t have a traditional label. But he was building a new studio before he died and he was going to do mail order and internet orders. It’s fun to think about what DJ Screw would do with the technology we have now considering how deep we are in analog technology now. It’s really fun to think about but the possibilities are endless.”
Co-Owner of Endless Horizons Sam Logan also commented on DJ Screw’s legacy.
“It’s just, he revolutionized a whole sub-genre and a whole new culture,” Logan said. “It’s cool to see someone from Houston being given the proper respect that he deserves.”
Walker got in touch with Logan about coming over to Endless Horizons and the store didn’t hesitate.
“He sent us an email and asked if we’d be interested,” Logan said. “I thought it was pretty cool. We’ve never had a book signing here to my knowledge. But I thought since we sell a lot of DJ Screw and a lot of chopped and screwed music, this would be a cool and different way to promote him and bring in people.”
Seeing this book come to life has been a welcoming experience for Walker.
“I haven’t seen it on a shelf yet,” Walker said. “People have sent me pictures of it on shelves and I never get tired of seeing it. It’s so rewarding to see packaged copies of the book and mail them off. I imagined it for so long and how a vision of how I wanted to work and look and University of Texas Press did such a good job of shaping that vision up.”
If you go
- What: DJ Screw Book Tour.
- Where: Endless Horizons.
- When: 3 p.m. today.
